2 7 8 9 10 ALASKA HEALTH CARE COMMISSION 11 12 …

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ALASKA HEALTH CARE COMMISSION

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JANUARY 7, 2011

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8:30 A.M.

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3601 "C" STREET, SUITE 896

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ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

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P R O C E E D I N G S

2 8:37:00

3

(On record)

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CHAIR HURLBURT: We can probably go ahead and start. I

5 think we have a quorum. Pat.....

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(Pause - background discussion)

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CHAIR HURLBURT: I think Pat Branco should be here

8 shortly. He's expecting to come, and I saw Jeff Davis

9 yesterday and I know he's expecting to be here so probably

10 will be here shortly. I think our two Legislators will not be

11 here. They're both recharging their batteries right now,

12 getting ready for their marathon that starts here in a couple

13 of weeks down in Juneau. So I think we'll probably wish them

14 well as they get ready for that. I think everybody has

15 received the agenda that we have here. Are there any comments

16 or questions on the agenda that you have? As Deb indicated in

17 that, we'll have some flexibility. Not really quite sure how

18 long some of the scheduled sessions will run and we gave it

19 our best guess, but we may rearrange it a little bit there,

20 depending on how things move along. Deb, can you talk about

21 the meeting rules? Val is not going to be here, but we did

22 know that in advance.

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COMMISSIONER ERICKSON: Yes. Right now, we do have a

24 quorum. I just wanted to note that, and we are expecting Pat

25 and Jeff to be here any minute and then we'll have ten of 11

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1 voting members present. And our Legislators couldn't join us

2 today. Senator Olson is in Barrow and Representative Keller

3 is out of state at a conference. So we should just be missing

4 one voting member today, who is also out of state.

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What I'm going to do -- actually what I thought I would

6 do is just take a minute to review what we're going to do

7 today and then go over a couple of main points about the

8 meeting rules. After our introductions this morning, we're

9 going to spend up until the break working on the report. I've

10 summarized, even more than the summary you received. I just

11 kind of tried to pull out the main points from the public

12 comments that we had received, and I want to review what I had

13 identified as the main points. Rather than going through

14 every single letter, even the summary of each letter that I

15 prepared for you, go over the main points, see if you think

16 I've left any main points out, and then I've organized those

17 around the main questions that we want to answer, any of the

18 comments specific to our 2010 recommendations, any of the

19 comments specific to our plans for either what strategies

20 we're going to study, what current issues we want to study in

21 2011. And so I've organized them that way, and we'll take

22 each of those questions together and see what other input you

23 all have, what decisions you want to make about changes, and

24 then we'll finalize that.

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So the plan is to really finalize the work on the 2010

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1 report this morning. The rest of the day, including the

2 public hearing portion of the day, is going to be about

3 getting our 2011 year started.

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So we're starting with a couple of panel presentations on

5 a couple of the issues that we had identified that we want to

6 look into, strategies we want to continue studying in 2011.

7 And then one of the members had asked at the last meeting that

8 we do -- while we're not focused on the new federal health

9 care law, we're not -- this Commission isn't charged with

10 making recommendations it -- that we continue to get updates

11 about what is going on in Alaska related to implementation of

12 the new law.

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So at the end of the day, as the Commission requested at

14 the last meeting, we have some of the key lead officials in

15 working on and responsible for anything related to

16 requirements under the new law who are going to share with us.

17 Two of the three are at the table with us right now.

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One of the things I wanted to note just about logistics,

19 for those who are joining us as visitors and observers, there

20 is some light continental breakfast available. Everybody is

21 welcome to that, as well as to the lunch. And for folks who

22 are on the phone, you all are on lecture-mode for the whole

23 day, except during the public hearing period from 12:30 to

24 1:30.

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One of the other things I wanted to note about the public

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1 hearing session is that we have a guest from Washington D.C.

2 Amanda Makki of Senator Murkowski's staff is joining us today,

3 and we've asked if she could just, during the public hearing

4 portion of the agenda, share with us a little bit about her

5 perspectives from Washington D.C. and what's going on back in

6 our Nation's capitol right now. So we're going to carve a

7 little bit of time out during the public hearing to devote to

8 a conversation with Amanda.

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Other than that, one of the things I especially want to

10 remind everybody, I wanted to point -- we'll see how this

11 works. It seemed like we were all lost in a sea of

12 microphones for the last couple of meetings and so we have

13 fewer microphones and so you need to share your microphone

14 with your friend next to you. Hopefully that will work, and

15 if it doesn't, we'll go back to the full -- everybody with

16 their own personal microphone, but we pay extra for each mic

17 and I'm being real cheap, even though this isn't -- I was

18 telling Sunny, our court reporter, this morning that I hope

19 that somebody appreciated that folks we're being cheap --

20 government officials would be cheap with money that's not

21 theirs, which is why we're meeting in this room again. I know

22 some of you don't think it's the most comfortable place to

23 meet, but it's free and any of our other choices wouldn't be.

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A reminder for all of you who are in the audience today,

25 if you could please make sure you sign in on the sign-in sheet

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1 in the back of the room, and if you're interested in

2 testifying during the public hearing later today, there is a

3 column for you to mark off next to your name if you're

4 interested in testifying. It will just help us keep track of

5 how many people to expect.

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Related to the mics again, I wanted to make sure that you

7 all remember that you not only turn your mic on when you're

8 talking and off when you're not talking, you really need to

9 keep your mouth as close to the mic as possible, and I think,

10 it was especially difficult for folks on the phone to hear

11 last time if people didn't have their mouths right up to the

12 mic. So if you could try to remember that and then we'll try

13 to remind you, and I need to be reminded periodically, too.

14 Those are the main things.

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Again if anybody in the room has cell phones, if you

16 wouldn't mind putting them on vibrate, and I think we're

17 probably good to go with that.

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One of the other things that we're making a point of

19 doing is just including the Commission statutory charge and

20 the one-pager that I had put together at one point that quotes

21 from our statute, our purpose and our duties. So we have that

22 as a reminder as well in your packet.

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One other thing for folks in the room, I have copies of

24 the presentations for today in the back of the room. And for

25 those of you who are on the phone, everything that's available

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1 as a handout to folks in the room here is available on the

2 Commission's website right now on the January 7, 2011 meeting

3 page, and if you don't have the Commission's website handy, if

4 you just Google Alaska Health Care Commission, that's probably

5 the quickest and easiest way to get to that page.

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I think that's about it. Dr. Hurlburt, when you do

7 introductions, we're not going to -- the way we have the phone

8 set up today, we're not going to be able to invite the folks

9 on the phone to introduce themselves, but during the public

10 hearing when they'll be off mute, we can invite them to do

11 that at that point in time.

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CHAIR HURLBURT: But we do want to include those who are

13 all in the room, okay? Yeah, let's -- why don't we go ahead

14 with the introductions now, and we'll go around the table for

15 the Commissioners first and then turn to you folks here that

16 we appreciate joining us today. Noah, if we could start with

17 you, just say who you are and who you represent in a sentence

18 or two about what passion brings you here.

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COMMISSIONER LAUFER: Good morning, I'm Noah Laufer. I'm

20 a family doc here in Anchorage in private practice. I've been

21 here about ten years, second generation. I'm President of --

22 or the current President of Medical Park Family Care. I'm

23 here representing primary care physicians. Thank you.

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COMMISSIONER STINSON: I'm Larry Stinson. I'm a

25 physician in the state of Alaska. I went through the WWAMI

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1 program. We have clinics all over the State, and I'm here

2 representing the interests of the practitioners, but really

3 the State.

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COMMISSIONER MORGAN: Dave Morgan filling the seat for

5 Primary Care Association and Community Health Centers.

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COMMISSIONER ENNIS: Emily Ennis representing the Alaska

7 Mental Health Trust and its four beneficiaries' boards. I'm

8 also Executive Director of Fairbanks Resource Agency providing

9 long-term care services and support to people with

10 disabilities, having a workforce of about 400.

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COMMISSIONER DAVIS: And I'm Jeff Davis and I'm the

12 President of Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska, and I'm

13 representing, I guess ostensibly, the insurance industry, but

14 more importantly, the people that use our services and the

15 people who pay the bills, and my passion is to help create a

16 sustainable health care system in Alaska.

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COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL: I'm Keith Campbell. I hold the

18 seat for consumers, representing consumers which is, I guess,

19 everyone around this table and everyone in the State and will

20 try to bring that perspective to deliberations. Thank you.

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COMMISSIONER FRIEDRICHS: I'm Paul Friedrichs. I'm the

22 Commander or CEO at the Air Force VA Hospital over at

23 Elmendorf and represent the Veterans and federal

24 beneficiaries.

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COMMISSIONER HALL: I'm Linda Hall. I'm the Director of

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